


Murphy's Law

by acatalepsy



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Angst, Anxiety, Hurt/Comfort, I watch too much I Shouldn't Be Alive for my own good, M/M, Survival story, There's also humour in here believe it or not, and internalised stigma as well, mental health stigma, yay!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-30
Updated: 2016-01-30
Packaged: 2018-05-17 04:19:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5853991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acatalepsy/pseuds/acatalepsy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rhett and Link have perfect careers, perfect lives - but when their luck takes a turn for the worst and the duo become lost on a hiking trip vacationing in New Zealand, will Rhett be able to hold it together for the both of them and keep them alive long enough to get rescued?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Murphy's Law

**Author's Note:**

> !!! for the full *~*experience*~* please listen to 'the circus sets up' by james newton howard (from the water for elephants soundtrack) before or while you read this !!! it would mean the world to me you have no idea.
> 
> ok now i will digress: hi! so i've written so much stuff over the past few months. unfortunately most of it is crap and i really struggle with multichapter words so here's ... a work in progress. i currently have like half of a second chapter, but yeah. it's so hard to write i don't know how you guys do it. no matter how much i plan i can never finish.
> 
> just a heads up. i'm probably not going to continue this. maybe one day i might? who knows. the writer's block has hit me hard with this. i think it's just because i don't want my boys to suffer lmao
> 
> also this fic is partially the reason literally everything i have contributed to the rhink fandom on my blog for the past couple of months has been chaos theory related. because this story has just been mulling around in my head :P sorry if you're a bit tired of the pseudo-intellectual math angst. 
> 
> also!! link-centric hc! again!  
> i know - i'm out of control  
> but i regret absolutely nothing

 

In the end, what troubled Rhett most of all was that they had felt safe.

It wasn’t like they were scaling Everest, they were just going on a three-hour-long trek through the forest. A hike which brochures said was suitable for the elderly, children, and apparently even pregnant women. He and Link had been in far more dangerous situations more than a dozen times throughout their lives. Perhaps it made them feel cocky, invincible - either way this shouldn’t have been the incident that got them in trouble. Funny how things work out that way.

It made Rhett doubt the very foundations on which his life were built, as if the threat of danger were laced into everything he did now, unsure of how to make it back to some semblance of normalcy.

Even though he and Link had come so close to death, were so isolated and yet so close to help, and had the knowledge that their kids would have been left to grow up without fathers — the sickening, unnerving feeling he always seemed to have now, overshadowing his everyday life, came from hindsight — being able to see all the little wrong choices they made along the way.

He’d done everything in his power to stay calm and logical for Link, and him, and their families, and despite that it _still_ almost wasn’t enough.

Danger had been the furthest thing from their minds.

__________

 

The night before they set out had been a balmy one, a quiet thrum of excitement hanging about the campsite as the everyone awaited setting off the next morning. It created a sense of camaraderie among them, their conversation seeming almost secretive, spoken in low tones accompanied only by the distant chirp of insects and the crackling of the bonfire they sat around.  

“So then, and keep in mind I have no idea what possessed me to do this, but I just run up to the guy and yell _‘WHAT ARE YOU THINKIN’?!’_ which at the time I guess was supposed to be intimidating or something, but in all honesty it probably looked pretty pathetic,” Link grinned, gesticulating animatedly as he told his tale.

The circle of their fellow campers erupted into laughter and Rhett watched the firelight dance in Link’s eyes as he beamed around at everyone, practically glowing, in his element entertaining the crowd.

Closest to the duo were a newlywed couple, fully decked out in professional tramping gear - Jackie, a tattooed woman with choppy bangs and her husband Carlos who was currently sipping from a steamy thermos, one hand gently resting on his wife’s thigh.

Because the couple were expecting their first child soon, the rest of the campers, making roughly sixteen of them in total, all sat around the fire after having just finished dinner, supplying them with their best advice.

Most of the people on the hike were either young, idealistic adults or older married couples, so with their charisma, eccentricity, and the way they didn’t really seem to fit in with the rest of the group, Rhett and Link quickly fell into the position of being the resident comedians, ending up leading the conversation and contributing anecdotes based off of their own experience with parenting.

Rhett leaned forwards, chuckling and gesturing back at Link with his thumb, “See, if this guy is managing to survive raising three kids with a temperament like _that_ there’s no doubt you guys are gonna be just fine.”

“Jerk,” Link nudged Rhett’s shoulder playfully.

Jackie’s eyebrows shot up. “Three kids? _Really?_ Bloody hell.”

Link laughed at her awed expression, unsure how to react. “Hey, now … Don’t act so surprised. I told Christy we’d have to draw the line at three. Any more than that and I don’t think I’d ever catch a break.”

“You told _Christy_ that, huh? I could’ve sworn it was the other way ‘round,” Rhett said with a small smile.

_“Shut up.”_ Link began to pelt his companion with mini-marshmallows.

“Alright, alright _._ Jeez, brother,” Rhett held up his hands in surrender, laughing and looking over at the couple with a melodramatic, wide-eyed expression as if to say _‘Can you believe I have to deal with this guy?’._

Jackie and Carlos laughed and leaned into each other, and Link popped a marshmallow into his mouth, shooting Rhett a comedically indignant look that sent the rest of the campers into hysterics once more.

It was good to see Link looking so happy and relaxed - Rhett knew it was an entitled thing to say with a job as permissive as theirs, but they both really were in dire need of a vacation, even if this _was_ technically a ‘work-related’ holiday.

Being constantly in the public’s eye was taxing when you hadn’t had a break for so long, and Link didn’t have the same ability to mask his stress in the way that Rhett could, the comments section becoming even more plagued with criticisms than usual.

So when Jetstar approached them, asking if they wanted to film a set of promotional videos, Rhett practically jumped on the idea—not exactly without ulterior motive, though. He’d been holding out to go to New Zealand for ages. The landscape was beautiful and although there _were_ distinctly less hobbits than he was expecting, he’d be lying if he said his inner Lord of the Rings fanboy wasn’t enjoying it … Not to mention, there _were_ a lot of nicely carved wooden souvenirs.

After several days of pestering Link, he finally gave in. They queued up a selection of videos to upload while they were gone, filmed a few more in bulk, and then they were off for a week-long excursion of sightseeing, camping, and hiking. All that was required of them was that they do a series of vlogs chronicling their journey throughout the country and they’d get all of their travel expenses covered.

It seemed too good to be true. But something Rhett had learned over the course of his career as an internetainer was that the job didn’t come without perks. Opportunities were varied and unexpected, and, with the exception of television broadcast (let’s not go there), it was best to take every one that presented itself to you.

As the first few people began to retire to their tents Link tilted his head back to stare up at the veil of stars above them. It was so thick they could make out the soft cloud of light that formed the milky way stretching out across the sky.

“Isn’t this amazing?” He exhaled the words, half to himself, half to Rhett. “Reminds you of home doesn’t it?”

Rhett hummed in agreement and leaned forward, hands on his knees. He looked up at the sky alongside Link, every so often glancing over at his friend who was so completely enraptured by the stars that he didn’t even seem to notice. Embers floated lethargically about him like a vision.

Suddenly Link turned to Rhett, causing him to blink rapidly. He looked so much younger than he had recently. “ _Gosh_ … Y’know what would be great right now? I wish you brought your guitar with you. Then we could show everyone a few of our songs. ‘Have a campfire sing-a-long or something.”

Rhett sighed contentedly and ran a hand up through his hair. “It’d be a pain to lug about everywhere, though.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Yeah,” he tilted his head to the side. “I do.”

 

______________

 

Later that night Rhett lay awake, the taste of mint toothpaste on his tongue as he watched shadows creep over the cover of he and Link’s tent. The branch of a nearby tree swayed and bobbed outside, casting what looked like the silhouette of a hand reaching out across the material.

He rolled over, shivering and sinking further down into his too-small sleeping bag, curling up a bit so he was completely covered, all except for his face. Although the air was only temperate, the difference between LA’s humid atmosphere and just about any other country’s was enough to make Rhett acutely aware of the chill around him.

His eyes slipped closed and he tried to visualise what he wanted to dream about that night so that the idea would have time to take shape in his mind; an old habit of his that had become so deeply entrenched in his daily routine that he never even gave it a second thought.

Half-way through picturing his receiving of the Nobel Peace Prize for inventing a cure for all ills, however, he was jolted back to awareness by a quiet rustling.

Fairly certain he’d read somewhere that there were hardly any dangerous animals in New Zealand he rolled over, trying to get back to sleep. After a few minutes, he felt himself beginning to drift off, but then -

There it was again.

Rhett buried his head beneath his pillow, trying to block out the sound. Although muffled it still remained, a peculiar whispering, crinkling coming from across the tent.

He was ninety-nine percent sure there was no wild animal in their tent, picking through their things.

It rustled again.

… _Ninety-five percent sure._

Eventually, he couldn’t take it any longer. He sat up cautiously, squinting into the tent’s turquoise darkness trying to detect any sort of movement, but the air was still and silent. Maybe it was just the sound of someone moving about outside?

He was just about to go back to sleep, convinced he was being irrational, when he saw a shape twitch in his peripheral vision. Heart beating so fast and so hard that he could hear the blood rushing in his ears, he slowly turned around to face the large, black creature, hunched over their bags. He tried to keep his breathing slow and quiet so it wouldn’t notice him.

Immediately his thoughts went to Link. He had to wake him up somehow.

He gently reached out a hand towards the bundled up shape of his sleeping friend, fingers splayed, when several things happened in quick succession.

The creature’s head whipped in his direction, Rhett flung himself across the tent in hopes of protecting Link in some way because Lord knows he’d probably sleep through a bear attack if given the opportunity, Link let out a startled yelp from _across_ the tent, and then everything was illuminated, an impossibly bright light shining into his eyes, leaving him temporarily blinded.

_“Rhett?”_ Link whisper-shouted into the darkness, torch tight in his grip.

“What …” was all Rhett could say, sprawled out across the tents floor, breathing hard. He propped himself up on his hands and knees and turned in the direction of the creature, no, _Link’s_ voice, shielding his eyes from the torchlight that was being shone directly at him.

“Dude, _what the heck._ You just sprung across the tent so fast it was like you’d heard the McRib was back in stores and the first hundred buyers could eat free.”

“What - Where’s the … I thought you …” Rhett paused, looking around the tent. There was no creature. Only now, what he realised to be the silhouette of Link, curled over their bags, presumably searching for something. Then he began to laugh, trying to stifle it to keep the other campers from waking up. _“I thought you were some sort of creature that had found it’s way into the tent or somethin’.”_

“A … creature?” Link said slowly, unable to stop a grin from creeping across his face at the sound of Rhett’s laughter. “What sort of dangerous predator that’s 6”4 and wears graphic t-shirts lives in isolated New Zealand forests looking to pillage tents?”

“I don’t know?” Rhett shook his head. “Quit shining that torch into my eyes, man. Soon you’re not gonna be the only glasses’d pair of the duo ‘cause we’re _both_ gonna be blind.”

“Sorry.” Link tilted the torch downwards, the two of them illuminated only by the white half-light rebounding off of the tent floor.

As the panic of thinking some sort of wild animal had found its way into their tent aware off, Rhett slowly came to his senses. Stretching, he realised with a twinge that he’d landed on his back at an odd angle in his _extremely heroic_ attempt at saving his friend’s life. He winced.

“‘You alright?”

Rhett waved his hand dismissively. “Fine. Although, you did scare the _crap_ out of me.” He frowned. “What are you doing up?”

“Just going over all our stuff for tomorrow,” Link placed the torch on the ground and shifted where he was sitting, beginning to rummage through their backpacks once more.

Rhett yawned. “Can’t you do that in the morning?”

“We’re getting up at six,” Link picked up a bottle of insect repellent, weighing it in each hand before securing it in the side pocket of one of the two backpacks in front of him. “You know any time before eight I’m essentially one of those guys from The Walking Dead.”

“We’re only gonna be gone for three hours tops,” Rhett said, slowly feeling his way over to his sleeping bag, trying to reassure his friend. “I don’t want you getting all obsessive over this. Nothing’s going to go wrong.”

From his bed he watched Link with a faint concern, who was now directing the torchlight back at their packs.

Before the trip he’d had told Rhett that he’d been taking anti-anxiety medication for the past few months and explicitly ‘not to get weird about it’ - which secretly he’d felt quite hurt by. He had no idea what ‘getting weird about’ something even meant or why Link would tell him explicitly not to act that way, as if he had acted that way _before_ . More importantly, it didn’t make sense that his _best friend_ would neglect to tell him about something that seemed so major.

“I’m not getting ‘all obsessive’,” Link rolled his eyes, voice faintly tinged with annoyance. “I’m just making sure we’ve got everything we need.”

Rhett just sighed and the rustling continued for several more minutes before the torch flicked off and he could hear Link crawling into bed, most likely cut short from giving their bags another full once-over.

There was the quiet _click_ of Link closing his glasses and then they sat there in the damp night air, accompanied only by the sound of their own breath and the gentle chirp of insects for several minutes. Finally Link broke the silence.

“I’m not a different person now, you know. Nothing’s changed,” he whispered up into the darkness of the tent, voice quiet and oddly sad. “Not everything about me is a problem that needs to be solved.”

Rhett’s heart sank. “I just want to help.” The impersonality of the night, in a peculiar way, made it easier for him to speak candidly than it usually was.

“Well, sometimes you come across as _just_ _a bit_ condescending.”

“Sorry,” Rhett said lamely.

The silence dragged on.

Eventually Link rolled onto his side to face Rhett, as if in resignation, unable to stay mad at his friend for long. “One of the first things I was taught in my first year industrial engineering course was Murphy’s Law. You’ve heard of it, right?” He shook his head. “Of course you have. Sometimes I wonder why I even bother asking.”

Rhett frowned. “The theory that whatever can go wrong, will go wrong, right? I never really understood it. Isn’t that just called ‘pessimism’?” He gave a weak laugh.

“Sort of. Common misconception,” Link’s voice softened. “It’s more like ‘whatever _can_ happen, will happen’. So whenever you’re manufacturing a product or improving a system you have to make contingency plans for every possible outcome. Or better yet just revise a process to be effective enough that there will be no unpredicted consequences.”

Rhett listened quietly to Link explaining this, humming along to let him know he was following.

“Most of the time when I’m organising things that’s not me being compulsive, or anxious, or whatever brand of crazy you think I’m being. It’s just who I am. That, and force of habit, I guess.”

“Oh,” Rhett fiddled with the zip on his sleeping bag. He grimaced. It hadn’t even occurred to him how patronising he must have sounded. “Sorry I’m such a jerk sometimes.”

“Don’t beat yourself up. It’s not like you do it on purpose,” Link manoeuvred in his sleeping bag so he could nudge Rhett’s foot with his, laughing gently. “It just comes naturally.”

“I can’t even deny that,” Rhett smiled back at him. Although he was glad that Link was okay, there was still something at the back of his mind. A question that often occupied too much of his time. “You’d want to tell me if something was really wrong, though, right? In the future?”

There was an almost imperceptible pause before Link’s response. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I? You’re my best friend.”

“I just wonder. Because of when we were kids, y’know? I don’t want you to think you’d be bothering me or making unnecessary problems.”

“I like things to be simple,” Link said, before adding, a sardonic smile laced through his words: “You know, eliminating unnecessary variables.”

“Ignoring things doesn’t make them simple, it just means they’ll be more complicated later on.”

Link snorted.

“It’s true."

“I don’t doubt that, brother. You’re always right,” Link said, voice tinged with an unidentifiable emotion. “Well, _almost_ always right. But that doesn’t make me any less reluctant to admit it.”

Link forgave so easily. It made a peculiar ache settle high in Rhett’s chest. What he wouldn’t give to understand how he could do such a thing, seemingly without having to try very hard at all.

It made him incredibly jealous, but also a bit guilty. He’d been a prick. Link shouldn’t just let him off like that.

“Thanks for putting up with me, man,” Rhett said, the following words rushing out of him all at once, “I … I’m just trying to look out for you, even though I’m not very good at it.”

“Trust me, it means a lot to me that you even bother with my emotional baggage in the first place,” Link chuckled humourlessly.

“This may come as a surprise to you, but we’ve been friends since first grade, brother. Soon enough you’re going to have to admit to yourself that I actually like having you around,” Rhett laughed, although deep down he knew that he could never fully convince Link that he honestly was never a nuisance, to him or any of his loved ones.

It’d always been this way. Ever since they were kids.

Maybe it was the way he’d grown up, constantly in between families, but there was always a self-deprecating nature about Link that never seemed like it was going away.

“Y’know what? Maybe you’re right,” Link chuckled back, genuinely this time. “If anything, _you’re_ the ‘crazy’ one for sticking around so long.”

In the end, maybe it didn’t matter. Things finally seemed to be looking up.

Link was, for the most part, happy; GMM had had a sudden and inexplicable surge in new subscriptions after their recent attendance that the Streamys; they had a whole week of sightseeing ahead of them - the future seemed bright.

  
The two lay in companionable silence like that until eventually they drifted off to sleep, Rhett’s dreams that night coloured with thoughts of a full-dark sky brimming with stars, the firelight dancing in Link’s eyes, and Murphy’s Law.


End file.
